We live in an era of fake news.
It's gotten so bad that you can't really tell what or who to trust. Fake news shows up everywhere, and then people like Donald Trump name the real news "fake news," and it's just a huge mess.
Some "facts" that come from the world we live in today are just incorrect. Not many, but enough. And it's scary.
u/booowser asked:
What widely accepted "facts" are actually incorrect?
Here were some of the answers.
They Know Who You Are
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"Goldfish have a 3-second memory."
Mythbusters proved this to be very wrong- their memory spans months!
While we're talking about goldfish: it's a misconception that they have a short lifespan. A healthy goldfish will generally outlive a healthy dog. It's just that people keep them in lethal conditions.
Taxes Are Messed Up
Earning slightly less in order to remain in a lower bracket actually means you pay less taxes overall.
It's a graduated system, it just means the extra money you didn't earn doesn't get taxed at that higher rate.
IT's not like it's actually taught in schools. Most people get a crash course at thier first job. Which means how to fill out a w-2 is often explain by a fast food/retail ast. manager or manager who's explanation probably came in a similar fashion a few years or depending on turn over a few months before. Assuming you went to an office job first, chances aren't much better. HR people aren't really the most informative in many cases. They have a quick listen once because I'm not saying it again spiel.
Hortense, Eat Your Heart Out
Ostriches don't stick their heads in the sand.
A Fledgling Learns By Mistakes
That if you handle a baby bird, the mother will smell your scent in its feathers and stop feeding it. That is an old myth and not at all true. If you come across a baby bird that has fallen out of its nest, it is perfectly okay to pick it up and place it back in the nest. If you come across a fledgling that is on the ground, though, leave it be because it is learning how to fly and its parents are more than likely close by. The way you can tell the difference is by size, feathers, and movement. Baby birds are small, don't have a lot of feathers, and will just sit still, while fledglings are slightly bigger, have all their feathers, and can hop around.
Keratine Had Nothing To Do With It
Carrots are good for your eyesight - the British Air Force made this up during World War Two because they did not want the general public to know about the new radar system. They just said that the pilots ate carrots and that's what helped them see at night.
MYOB
All allergies/intolerances have crazy reactions. People all have different degrees of reactions and different symptoms and even these can vary within a person due to stress, age, and levels of whatever they ate.
I have Celiac disease and the number of people who try to backseat doctor me and police my eating is insane. Not only are there different amounts and qualities of gluten in different foods, some being within the PPM recommended by actual medical organizations, different people have different degrees of reactions to everything.
And to all those saying I'm damaging my body if I eat any gluten, well you're doing the same whenever you eat sugar or drink alcohol or too much caffeine or smoke or fail to get in exercise during a week or fail to put sunscreen on.
Water Water Water Water Water
The idea that everyone has to drink 8 glass of water a day, and only pure water counts. No, everyone has different hydration requirements. The human body can extract water from coffee, tea, and soup just fine. Drink when you feel thirsty and you'll be fine.
A Pore Explanation
That washing your face with hot water opens the skin pores and cold water closes the pores, it's a misconception
The truth, as I understand it, is that pores can't open and close because they would each need To be controlled by tiny muscles to do so, but they aren't.
However, like many oils sebum gets thinner when warmer which may cause it to be removed more easily from the skin, and that might be why some people feel like their skin is cleaner or their pores less visible after cleaning with warm water or steaming. It could also just be a sort of placebo effect because people are primed to believe it.
Blame It On The Alcohol
That the alcohol culture in the US is horrible because we can't drink until we're 21.
In reality, countries like in Europe (which has a lax alcohol culture regarding teen consumption) has some of the highest rates of alcohol deaths in the world. 1 in 5 Europeans 15 and older report heavy alcoholic drinking (5 or more drinks in one sitting) at least once a week.
Straight People Talking About Gay Rights
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How the slippery slope logical fallacy works.
Most of the time on Reddit at least, people use the term completely wrong. Most recent example, I said something about being okay with sterilization of anyone who definitely shouldn't have kids. (We all know people that shouldnt be allowed to breed)
Immediate response "that's a slippery slope because who decides who shouldn't have kids and it will end up being used to wipe out certain races"
That's not how the term slippery slope works. The assumption that it would suddenly be used to block certain races from having kids is the slippery slope. My statement itself isn't a slippery slope because that's not how it works.
Technical definition "When a relatively insignificant first event is suggested to lead to a more significant event, which in turn leads to a more significant event, and so on, until some ultimate, significant event is reached, where the connection of each event is not only unwarranted but with each step it becomes more and more improbable. Many events are usually present in this fallacy, but only two are actually required -- usually connected by "the next thing you know...""
Try not to follow the bad advice given here, because you don't want to get the results that these guys did.
U/Duckerton375 asked: What's the worst advice someone ever gave you, but you still followed?
The workplace can bring a cornucopia of terrible advice. Don’t follow these unless you want to get fired.
​Bad jobs are usually not worth it.
Stick with a job no matter how bad it is. I stayed with a terrible job working retail, dealing with horrible customers and sexual harassment. I was told I wouldn't find anything better.
"No, no, you misunderstand. I said you wouldn't find anything better at making you feel like complete garbage."
This gets really creepy really fast.
frustrated workplace GIFGiphy"After you put in a job application, you need to call them at least once a day every day until they hire you."
Note: this did not get me hired. It got me called out by the HR person I was calling and forbidden to ever contact their facility again.
I work for a law firm that employees over 1500 people in the home office alone. Once I received a call from the building security saying, "Insert Name is here to speak with the owner." Well we are run by a committee so that's odd. Found out they just applied for a job and wanted to talk directly to the person that would potentially hire them. Told him the firm will contact them to schedule an interview. They refused to leave without "talking to the owner." Had security escort them out of the building.
​This is absolutely not true.
"Sleep is for people who do not want success" great words from my uncle, it almost killed me.
Now I may be oversleeping.
​Interpersonal relationships are also a big breeding ground for terrible advice. Don’t listen to any of these.
Heartbreaking.
My father always tought me and my brother that "having friends is bad and in the end they will never be there for you" so everytime I told my father about my friends he would get kinda mad and give me the advice to stop talking to them.
Now I am afraid of people and have several trust issues, thanks dad.
​This won’t end well.
A Christmas Story GIF by filmeditorGiphyIn the fifth grade my teacher was talking about bullying, then she said "if anyone tries to bully you just agree with them." So the next time I got bullied I agreed with the bully and they bullied me more.
Dude one time I saw an anti bullying video that told the victims to just BE NICE TO THE BULLY. Like the bully was hurling insults and the victim was smiling and complimenting him. My first thought was about how much I hated the mere thought that this would work. My second thought was of how the people who came up with that method had clearly never been bullied.
​Oof.
When I met my now wife at the age of 19, one of my coworkers said that it's very important to start at the bottom with presents and work your way up, she still has the socks I gave her on our first anniversary on the wall over our bed as a reminder...
I'm still trying to teach my boyfriend about good presents and bad presents. Biscuits from the supermarket = bad present. Cheap unbranded laptop battery from China as my only present = bad present (and only lasted 2 months). Anything off my 7-page wishlist = good present. It's literally a list of things I want to receive as presents.
​Can tell you from experience that this is a bad idea.
Had a falling out with some friends. My husband recommended I reach out to an old friend who ghosted me suddenly in a manner that induced some pretty severe abandonment trauma. Went for it anyways because "it's been so long, surely they changed". Am now experiencing the same things as last time.
When you follow bad advice, it can lead to mistakes that you just can’t come back from.​
Buying a house is tricky.
for sale dancing GIF by Lisa VertudachesGiphy"Buy a home now before the prices go up!" -my FIL in 2006.
We bought in 2007 and paid $259,500 for our 1,300 sq ft house (we really couldn't afford it and had an 80/20 so we had 8% interest for one loan and 6% on the other) and in 2008 it was worth $97,000 so refinancing wasn't even an option. We watched all of our neighbors walk away or get foreclosed on but we kept paying our bills and as of this very moment our house is worth $462,000. I'm so happy we stuck it out, we both worked our @sses off and the house will be paid off in 2 years.
It worked out for us, it's a horrible idea. Especially since 1300 sq ft houses are $460+k
My heartbreaks for future generations, I honestly don't know how people are going to afford housing in the future.
It’s there for a reason.
"Never apply for any government assistance."
Cue years of suffering trying to work full-time with a painful disability. Quit a particularly terrible job, and wanted to apply for food aid until I could find another gig; a friend with lots of DHS experience recommended I apply for Social Security "just to get in the system." Turns out my disability was bad enough to get accepted the first time, which I wasn't expecting. Really could've used that support, oh, the 30+ previous years of my life.
Credit is important to have.
I was told to not get a credit card until after college. I was super fortunate to have my college paid for so I had no loans, car paid in cash, no credit card or anything to start building credit. Found myself out in the world at 22 years old with a credit score of 0.
So while a lot of this bad advice came from trusted people, oftentimes they were too misinformed to give that advice in the first place. Don't trust the word of one person--do your research, and make decisions for yourself.
It'll be way better in the long run